Inkbird Environment Control Automation - VPD Made Easy!

[green_machine]

@NezA

 

Hey mate, I noticed this morning that my inkbird setting seem to have become a bit mixed up. The temp is 27 and is correct but the humidity is only going to 52% when it should be 58%.

 

I have gone through and checked all of my settings and everything seems to be correct and in the right order, in addition, the settings have been running fine until now, so I am inclined to think that maybe the inkbirds have just messed up somehow.

 

I know earlier on in the thread you mentioned that your settings occasionally seemed to go out of sync, did this resolve itself or did you have to go in and re-set the controllers?

 

thanks for your help mate.

 

greenie

[NezA]

I had it happen once @green_machine it's basically due to a conflict I resolved it by deleting and re adding the rules although a few pages back someone else mentioned an alternative method that might be worth trying.

[NezA]

On 10/03/2021 at 5:11 PM, pheerles said:

I signed up on this site just to be able to comment on this thread.  I'm in the US, and have a similar set up and wanted to find out how to further tune my tent.

 

Anyhow, running through the OP stepped automation I ran into an issue where multiple automation steps applied - for instance, when one automation rule with a temperature condition (e.g. 'less than 20C') fits, so do all the other ones above that temperature setting (e.g. 'less than 21C', 'less than 22C', and so on).  At this point it matters which automation rule is higher in the chain (I suspect this relies on priority of automation rules, and likely which rule is placed closest to the top of the list).  I discovered this because while checking the status soon after configuring these rules, I found that the current RH value did not correspond to the proper rule.  I might not be explaining this correctly, but hopefully someone can see what I'm saying.

 

In order to fix this, on each rule I've further defined the applicable conditions to reflect a low-hi window of temperatures - e.g. 'more than 20C', 'less than 21C', and configured the rule to only trigger when ALL conditions have been met.  It is unfortunate that there is no option for "more/less than or equal to" but seeing as how temperatures are highly mobile and don't just land haphazardly along the spectrum, this shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

I'm guessing it doesn't effect those that have also created single condition rules much, but hope it helps anyway.

 

Hmmm, guess I cannot insert/attach a photo.

 

The photo is on the next page of the thread from that post.

[green_machine]

Perfect @neza I used the programming pheerless used to set a temperature range and this has solved the problem straight away.

 

Thanks for your help mate.

 

greenie

[crticalcontent]

This is exactly what I was looking for neza.. I’ve been looking at the ink bird gear. Right up my street being able to control your environment remotely. 

[superfruit]

After having reasonable success with VPD management with HPS (lower ambient temperature due to the higher leaf surface temperature), I'm making the move into the LED world (diyled), so finally much more of the general findings and advice in this thread will be more applicable to my own grow. Will keep you posted!

[Gaijin]

@NezA Morning mate  I have a question for you, although I'm sure there's many who could answer this for me. I'm going to be setting up my first grow, in an exterior shed. I was planning on using one of the Inkbirds in each tent to control the heat mats and tube heaters. Seemed reasonable in my head at the time  But now I'm wondering where the probe should be? If I have the probe under one of the pots, say, to keep the roots in constant comfort, the tube heaters are only going to come on based on the root temp, not based on the air temp. If I hang the probe at canopy level, it's the reverse problem. Or is it a problem at all?  I don't know if this will make much of a difference or not. Where does one normally put the probe?  

[NezA]

Alright @Gaijin so it depends on what you're after from the controller. 

 

If you're using it purely to keep your roots happy then your plan is sound. A lot of people go with the probe in the pot approach.

 

However, If you're planning on going down the VPD route then you're going to need a rethink because you need the controller to measure air temps. 

 

Personally I use mine to monitor air temps and I just keep my air temps high enough so that my rootzone is constantly happy.

 

There's no right or wrong place to put your probe... (Not as sexy as it sounds. )

 

It's all about knowing what the advantages and disadvantages of each placement bring to the table and what the best compromise for your own situation is. Many ways to skin a cat and all that.

[Gaijin]

@NezA I should probably have mentioned that I'll be using AC Infinity fans with their controller, probe hung at canopy height or thereabouts. That should help. I'll be using LEDs. Really, I'm trying to be as prepared as possible for having to provide heat and keep humidity within the recommended limits - without knowing if I'll need to add heat at all  

 

[SYZYGY]

Just got round to reading through this thread, good stuff @NezA

 

I was set on the full VPD automation path for a while but I get quite obsessive about these things and imagined myself spending more time designing/tweaking/programming than just spending some quality time with the plants. 

 

I do have a GAS Enviro Control sorting the bloom tent out, controlling fan speed and turning an oil rad on/off to maintain canopy conditions. 

It's a perpetual tent with 4 different stages of bloom so I just keep it at 28°C / 60-65% (lights-on) throughout and don't worry much about VPD. 

 

What's made a huge difference for me is having a separate thermostat for the root zone: probe down in the soil controlling 2 tube heaters under the trays (which are sat on a pallet). I found that even with a good daytime canopy temp, the roots were getting as low as 21°C. Now that I've set the root zone Inkbird to 23°C night and day, the plants are a lot happier. It also means that during lights-off, the oil rad doesn't have to work as hard. 

 

I've now done the same in my veg tent: one Inkbird thermostat controls a heat mat (probe in soil), another controls a tube heater suspended in the air (probe at canopy level). Massive difference!

 

 

[NezA]

Heya @SYZYGY I just realised I didn't respond to you in here.

 

To be honest once these are all setup there's not really much tweaking you can do. I remember in the early days I obsessed with monitoring the metrics on the app, but the novelty soon wore off. Nowadays I don't even give them a second thought everything is so stable, it's boring.

 

One day I'll go down the fancy EC fan & controller route it's the superior setup in my mind, but this is hard to beat in terms of bang for your buck, what it's capable of doing for the money is pretty nuts.

 

Heat mats / electric underfloor heating controlled via an inkbird is where I'll be going next I think particularly for my veg tent it's a real struggle in there this time of year the tube heaters I have don't do a bad job all things considered but if I want really happy plants my setup will need tweaking for sure.

 

I don't think my grow space will ever be finished there's always something else that needs doing.

 

[Highgrade14]

Awesome post man, well helpful. Sorry if I missed this-but is there a way of getting around the issue of a humidifier staying in standby mode when a controller turns it on? It’s a fairly cheap elechomes one that works great but doesn’t automatically come back on when power is turned off and then on. Thanks

[pheerles]

1 hour ago, Highgrade14 said:

Awesome post man, well helpful. Sorry if I missed this-but is there a way of getting around the issue of a humidifier staying in standby mode when a controller turns it on? It’s a fairly cheap elechomes one that works great but doesn’t automatically come back on when power is turned off and then on. Thanks

 

You'd just have to find one with an analog switch.  Personally I use a "Honeywell HWM-705B HWM705B Filter Free Warm Moisture Humidifier" that works well as long as you don't allow the reservoir to go completely empty.

[inceywinceyspider]

This is a great thread.

I've been using an itc308 to control heating and extraction fan speed by using a two way relay to make a contactor which switches between the variac and full speed on the fans, its controlled by th cooling socket on the inkbird leaving he heater socket for heaters.

I'll be having a right good read of this thread later.

[latigid aikon]

That's interesting @inceywinceyspider, I've got as far as thinking about doing something like that with my variacs